Who made the old Radio Shack musical instrument speakers?

[Ritchie200]

I've still got four or five of these laying around.  Various 12" and 8".  All with aluminum dust covers - no holes (aluminum cool beans!).  I had heard they were all made by Eminence but one of the ceramic 12's frame does not look like anything Eminence ever made.  Is there a way to cross reference any numbers to double check?  Thanks in advance!

Jim

[jojokeo]

No response = no love Jimbob! (they are afraid of you >:)

I used to know this answer definitively (but that was about 30 years ago?) I used to have a bunch of 12s in my home made bassman cabs which are likely mulch now? I do have an 8" in a small "death transformer" amp using those string of 110v heaters tubes.

[Ed_Chambley]

If they have numbers on them look here:
http://www.unclespot.com/speakerEIAcodes.html


They should have codes on them.

[Frankenamp]

In another life I managed A couple of Radio Shacks on the left coast. The vintage ones 50's to late 70's maybe even into the early 80's were usually Utah. Some of the cheapest were from Quam.  The raw stock was a mixed bag. There was a $12 4" speaker marked "FE-103" that was made by Foster. (Now they are worshiped by the single driver crowd in horns or transmission lines.). The piezos all came from Motorola. In the '80's Tandy / Allied started sourcing most of their speakers from Japan and other Asian sources like Taiwan. This continues into the early 00's when Radio Shack followed the lead of the big box stereo stores and started getting everything from China. When I was young, Japanese goods were considered trash. By the turn of the century they made the best consumer electronics.


   Two things I learned working  at Radio Shack in the late 80's, was that all VCRs in the world came from 5 Asian factories no matter whose label was on 'em and all the good (high end) audio stuff was made by pioneer. As a kid I spent weeks memorizing the Allied and Lafayette catalogs... My first speaker project was a 4 cubic foot tower with 2-12" RS 50W musical instrument drivers and a 3" by 7" horn tweeter... which got cut in half to make two 2 cubic foot boxes with a 12" and a horn in each.... Glorious!




Found this on the web:  http://dldebertin.com/speakers/utah.htm

[jojokeo]

Check this out. The box was originally stapled top and bottom, never opened and in great shape. Sold on the Bay for just under $200 including shipping.

[Ritchie200]

Haha! That's one of the one's I have!  I still haven't had a chance to scribble down the number or thank you guys for replaying to my question!

Jim

[Frankenamp]

Looks like one of the Utah speakers. Same model I put into a 2 cu foot box long ago. $200 for a $14 speaker! That's some serious inflation. Back in the day I thought they were cool- almost looked like JBL's from a distance... Science teacher was a audiophile and despised Utah speakers (he could afford to, he had Stephens loaded Karlsons with 075 tweeters which were pretty high end for the day) How things change.